Pas­saris tells women not to be shaken by men like Mi­guna

Es­ther Pas­saris has urged women not to be dis­cour­aged by men out to dis­credit them while go­ing for lead­er­ship po­si­tions.

Mi­guna Mi­guna has dis­missed a video clip of an ex­change with her dur­ing KTN’s Jeff Koinange Live Show on Wednes­day night.

In the clip the Nairobi gov­er­nor as­pi­rant is shout­ing with his hands in the air “ev­ery­body is rap­ing Es­ther... Es­ther is so beau­ti­ful... ev­ery­body wants to rape her ...”

The Me­dia Coun­cil of Kenya yes­ter­day said al­though it be­lieves in me­dia free­dom, the com­ments made on the show vi­o­lated the law on tone, taste and ob­scen­ity.

Chief ex­ec­u­tive Haron Mwangi said, “The guests used dis­parag­ing re­marks against each other on air.”

He ad­vised pro­duc­ers and host Jeff Koinange to be mind­ful of what tran­spires in their shows and mod­er­ate guests.

Pas­saris, who is also an as­pi­rant for gov­er­nor, did not take Mi­guna’s com­ments lightly.

“You are so sick...You are so jeal­ous and I can’t even look at you... re­ally... re­ally... you are so dis­gust­ing,” she said. But un­de­terred by the “soft” words from Pas­saris, Mi­guna con­tin­ued talk­ing, ges­tur­ing at the op­er­a­tor record­ing the video.

“Es­ther... no­body wants you ... you think you are beau­ti­ful... you are not.” Clad in a black suit and red tie, Mi­guna told Pas­saris all she has is the colour of her skin.

“It’s just colour...Es­ther, it’s just colour... With­out the colour you are noth­ing...you are ab­so­lutely zero... you are zero...you are not beau­ti­ful... You have noth­ing...,” said the lawyer.

“The car­tels who think you are beau­ti­ful... they sent you here.” Koinange and the crew are seen un­shaken and laugh­ing at the ar­gu­ment as they go on with the show.

But Pas­saris, who was left speech­less, got more furious as time went by.She told Mi­guna off, say­ing, “Get used to the idea that you will never be the gov­er­nor. Shut up, re­ally...you are so racist....”

In a post on Twit­ter yes­ter­day, Pas­saris urged women not to be dis­cour­aged by men like Mi­guna.

“Men like Mi­guna have no place or role to play in our em­pow­er­ment. He is part of the prob­lem. Let’s be even more de­ter­mined to take our place at the ta­ble,” she said.

Pas­saris said women are not per­fect but con­tinue striv­ing for more. “I en­cour­age women not to shy away from lead­er­ship for fear of vic­tim­i­sa­tion, char­ac­ter as­sas­si­na­tion and prej­u­dices of pa­tri­archy,” she said.

But Mi­guna said via Twit­ter that some parts of the video were omit­ted.

“The video omits the por­tion where Pas­saris ac­cused me of rape... She did not spec­ify whom I al­legedly raped,” he said. “The car­tels are out in full force with false­hoods, propa- ganda and threats. Let’s stick to the truth.”

Mi­guna said “the car­tels” are try­ing to be­smirch his rep­u­ta­tion with edited and con­trived videos, adding, “but the peo­ple of Nairobi have de­cided.”

“Es­ther Pas­saris pur­ports to be vy­ing for Nairobi gov­er­nor as Es­ther Pas­saris ... she can­not there­fore project her­self merely as a woman,” he said. Not­ing he has im­mense re­spect for women, Mi­guna said he does not re­spect hyp­ocrites and op­por­tunists.

“...those who use their gen­der to seek or ob­tain ad­van­tages that they don’t de­serve,” he said.